Customer Reviews

The Technopriests: Book 1 : Techno Pre-School

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since the ongoing decline of the Alan Moore's and Neil Gaimans over the last decade, graphic novels have been pretty dull. With the TechnoPriets, Jodorowsky has finally made an attempt to put something recent actually up there with the Watchmen's and Dark Knights of the past.

You'll have to forgive some of the more awkwardly translated passages, and Jodorowsky's typical "hokey" sense of humour and love for sci-fi jargon and babble like "TechnoPriests" but it's all well worth it. The story unfolds as Albino recounts his life story and his mother's mad quest to castrate the three space pirates who raped her and spawned her 3 children: Almagro, Albino and Onyx. Typically mad stuff by Jodo. Not to be missed!

It's easy to read this comic in different ways. The first is as the life story of The Albino through Jodorowsky's characteristically vicious world. He is one of triplets born of rape, barely tolerated their mother. He progresses through increasingly harsh and secretive levels of the Technopriesthood. Every stage is a test, where the questions must be discovered by the initiate and the penalty for wrong answers is mutilation or death. The Albino, however, discovers the questions behind the questions and the answers behind the answers. He always advances beyond his sadistic masters, pulled forward when the lords of the next inner circle recognize additional depths to his brilliance.

Another reading of this story is a parable of some geek locked in permanent adolescence. His only goal is to create really cool games, but the grownups aren't smart enough to see how smart he is and won't let him. And, of course, the ultimate evil for this would-be developer is the marketing department. All this wrapped up a transparent fantasy of costumes and grand rituals.

OK, the story goes over the top in solipsistic self-importance - other comics have worse failings. Still, the artwork is uncommonly good (if sometimes iconic), and carries the story (such as it is) well. If you can suspend disbelief long enough, it's a fair read. I'm not rushing out for the next volumes in the series, though.

//wiredweird